Wonder Woman and Superman Fought in the Original ‘Justice League’ Script

Once upon a time, they were going to make a movie out of Justice League. Before Zack Snyder got his grubby little paws all over the franchise, DC had planned to hand George Miller the keys to the kingdom for a mega-crossover titled Justice League Mortal. In the simpler world of 2007, Miller planned a hero-versus-hero clash in which Superman would fall under the sway of villain Maxwell Lord and turn on his closest friends. (Nowhere in the draft did Superman remark on maternal naming conventions.) And in a recent interview, would-be star Jay Baruchel divulged some of the more intriguing specifics.

While making a guest appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Baruchel reminisced about the days in which he was slated to portray Maxwell Lord and walked the listeners through the prospective plot of Justice League Mortal. It turns out that the film’s most momentous showdown would be between Superman as Lord’s puppet and Wonder Woman:

“There’s a scene where Maxwell Lord brainwashes Clark and all of a sudden this guy’s got Superman as a weapon. But in order for me to do this – to get in to a Kryptonian brain – I start bleeding out of every f*cking orifice because it takes that much to get into the head of a Kryptonian. And then I turn him into Red-Eye Superman, and there’s this big a** fight between him and Wonder Woman where he breaks her wrists.”

Um, two tickets, please? Baruchel, are you telling us we could have had a Batman v Superman with rectal bleeding and supeheroes’ arms getting snapped like pretzel rods? What’s George Miller up to these days, anyway — is it too late to make good on this lost promise?